Increasing technical rescue competence

April 13, 2012

The Technical Rescue Instructional Project (TRIP) is a local nonprofit aiming to increase technical rescue competence in the recreational climbing community and public safety sector through the provision of affordable rescue training. Photo/Supplied

The Technical Rescue Instructional Project (TRIP) is a local nonprofit aiming to increase technical rescue competence in the recreational climbing community and public safety sector through the provision of affordable rescue training.
While TRIP has developed a standardized curriculum, its trainings have the feel of being custom tailored to the skill sets of the student and range from safe rappelling practices to advanced casualty rescues in completely vertical environments.

“With TRIP, we want to start a conversation of safety, training and confidence in the climbing community,” said founder and director Scott Archibald.

“We believe this will help increase safety not only to the climbing community, but will also allow recreational climbers to enjoy their sport with more confidence and safety than they have in the past.”

TRIP has been holding free local workshops to teach rescue skills to climbers who are looking to take their rescue skills to the next level and for people who want to practice those skills in a controlled environment under the supervision of trained professionals.

According to the American Alpine Club’s “Accidents in North American Mountaineering” study, there were a total of 10 fatal accidents in 2010 due to climber error in California alone.

“With falls in the workplace being the second leading cause of workforce fatality, my rescue services have spread very well in industrial settings,” Archibald said.

“Although there are fewer deaths in the climbing community, because they are friends, these deaths tend to hit closer to home.

“Many climbing related fatalities may be avoidable. TRIP’s goal is to reduce those climbing related incidents through building awareness for informed assumption of risk, and rescue response training.”

For the past eight years Archibald has taught rescue courses and managed rope access and mountain exploration projects for clients in the private sector such as Shell, ExxonMobil, Northrop-Grumman, and GE.

Recently, Archibald decided to take his skill from the industrial field and begin putting his efforts toward teaching these skills to climbers in hopes of making the sport safer.

“I believe that by providing an outlet for rescue training, climbers will not only learn how to rescue themselves, but also gain awareness for circumstances that increase rescue demand,” he said.

“This will hopefully deliver preventative effects, and potentially improve climber relations with land managers as well.

“The goal is to make the climbing community more responsible with the risks they assume.”

TRIP is currently preparing to launch a proposal on www.kickstarter.com to gain funding to shoot a full-length rescue instructional video filmed in Yosemite National Park.

According to Archibald, “These videos will be hands down the most breathtaking footage of rescues ever captured and not only be entertaining to watch but will demonstrate advanced rescue techniques that TRIP intends to make a part of every climber’s skill set.

“If our kickstarter.com campaign is successful, we’ll be able to hire top videographers such as Andy Bardon who is currently filming for the National Geographic on Mount Everest.”

While TRIP goes through all the paperwork needed for permitting and nonprofit business administration, they are not accepting donations from the public, or payment for their courses.